Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Breaking Down The Rochester, NY Police Department's Body-Cam Program Sham

Rochester, NY Police Lieutenant Mike Perkowski shows off his body-cam

By Davy V.

After several years of talks, city council meetings, playing politics, more city council meetings, stalling and delay tactics, all while Rochester, NY cops abused and violated innocent citizens' civil rights, Rochester, NY Police Lieutenant Mike Perkowski announced Monday that RPD officers will finally begin wearing body-cams.

Not so fast.

Join me as I break down Lt. Perkowski's bullshit PR spin including his claim that the Rochester Police Department is interested in "transparency."

First of all, out of the 6 RPD sections, only one, the Clinton section will wear body-cams.

Which basically means that for now, roughly only 16 percent of the Rochester Police Department will wear body-cams.

Which basically means that there'll be plenty of more time and opportunies for rogue, dirty Rochester, NY cops to continue racially profiling, abusing, and executing innocent people and family pets, all while continuing to go unchecked.

"It is mandatory for it (body-cam) to be on during all arrests; pursuit, use of force and any type of detention," Lt. Perkowski added.

"So an officer not knowing if he is going to be in that type of situation will always initially start a call with the camera on. Once he understands better what is going on he has the option to keep recording or turn it off."

Ok.

Hold up.

So, like I've said for years, cops can, and will, be able to turn off any video recording at any time, AT THEIR DISCRETION.

In other words, what's the purpose of Rochester, NY Police officers wearing body-cams when they can choose to turn them off whenever they want?

Also, did any of you catch Rochester Police Lieutenant Perkowski's Frieudian slip, not once, but twice, when he referred to his officers as "he"?

As if there are no female RPD officers.

I thought that was very interesting, and indicative of the "Good Ol' Boys Club" mindset.

But perhaps the most telling part that the Rochester, NY Police Department's body-cam program is a sham and that the last thing the RPD is interested in is transparency, is Lt. Perkowski's answer when asked if citizens, (A.K.A. TAXPAYERS) will beable to review body-cam video footage.

"We're kind of looking at that by a case by case basis," Lt. Perkowski said. "For now, until we have more video come in and more real-life scenarios, so for now, we are sticking with our FOIL (Freedom of Infornation Law) process. They would go to the City of Rochester and FOIL the video and we would look at their application and see if it was something we could give out, or not."

Yep.

Blah, blah blah, blah blah.

TRANSLATION:

As a Rochester, NY taxpayer, you can go to room 202A in Rochester's City Hall where you'll be peppered with questions by some overpaid receptionist who's more interested in texting her baby daddy, than in helping you, and who will make you feel as if you're being interrogated.

After the interrogation ends, you will be given a FOIL request form to fill out.

You will then turn in that form to the receptionist as she's still texting her b.d.

Then you'll go home and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

At which point, if you don't just give up, as many taxpayers do when they never hear back regarding their FOIL request, you can call room 202A in City Hall only to be given a runaround which will

no doubt include being placed on hold for an extended period of time, only to be told, yep, you guessed it, that you'll have to wait some more.

At which point you get off the phone frustrated.

Several weeks later, if you're lucky, you'll receive a letter stating that after reviewing your FOIL request, the powers that be, the same ones whose salaries you pay, have decided that there's nothing for you to see, and therefore have denied your FOIL request.

In the end the Rochester, NY Police Department's body-cam program is a round-about way to fool taxpayers, giving them the illusion that there's transparency, when there really isn't.

All the while getting to the same end result.

The Rochester Police Department policing themselves.

Rochester, NY cops controlling when to turn their body-cams on and off.